The Goon is Back and You’re Gonna Be in Trouble

January 4th, 2006 at at 9:41 pm by Brian

Well, we lost another one, but this time we got to play to the end. The final score was 9-7. We got the first goal (my linemate) and at one point later in the game we had pulled within one goal, but they just kept getting that extra goal. I got a little more rough and tumble than I have been, a little closer to how I used to play, but still no penalties. My trainer had me do a boxing workout on Monday and I told him it would be his fault if I got a fighting major.

Looking back I see I didn’t post anything about the last game the week before last – another mercy rule game, this time 12-2 and I was a -4 I think. Tonight I was a -3, but only because I was out there for two of our goals.

At one point in the game tonight I went into the boards with a guy, pushing and shoving for the puck and we both went down. When I got up, the whole rink just kept doing slow 360s around me. I wound up winning my faceoff anyway and played out the rest of my shift. I just had to keep my eye on one person and focus. I wound up short shifting after that.
Next week is a doubleheader – 9:00 and 10:00. A good team for the first game and a team like ours for the second game. I guess it’s better than the other way around. These might be my last two games of the season ’cause the week after next we play on a Sunday, but my appointment with Dr. Cooper is on the Thursday before that. We’ll see if he wants me to go right into treatment or if I get to sneak one more game in. Like I told the guys, if there’s someone really good on the second team of the doubleheader, I’ll take him out – if I get suspended after that game, it won’t matter anyway :) The goon hath returned.

Oh, one other thing contributing to the dizziness – I’ve had a cold since Sunday. Well, Sunday the initial signs started and I was down for Monday. Then I woke up at 5:00 AM on Tuesday to shovel the drive for Barb. It was heart attack snow out there – only two or three inches, but it was wet wet wet. It took me an hour and a half to do our driveway and the front sidewalk. At about the one hour mark, I realized I wasn’t going to be going in to work. I was soaked through and through – the wet wet wet snow was still falling from the sky while I was snowing and I was sweating on the inside. The snow and the sweat met somewhere in the middle. I wound up emailing in sick and slept the whole day.

Oh, and I’ve almost made the switch completely back to the PC. I need the PC to do work stuff and switching back and forth between Mac and PC was getting to be a pain. So I spent a good part of the weekend getting everything moved over and set up.

Also, last night I taught myself how to cross-stitch. I had bought a dinky little kit with a monkey face on it and it had been mocking me for a couple of weeks. I had to wait for a big file transfer at one point, so I picked it up and went to work. Now I’m trying to find myself something hard for when I’m in the hospital. When I was stitching, I could just zone out and focus on the needle and thread. I looked up and an hour had gone by without me noticing.

The only problem with cross-stitching is that most of the patterns out there are… well… sickening. Cloying, perhaps. Just go over to Google and type in “cross-stitch pattern” and you’ll see what I mean. Have no fear – I’m not going to be stitching angels and fluffy bears just yet. See, when a geek picks up cross-stitching (or at least when this geek does) he thinks… pixel art! Why stitch a mockingbird when you can make a pattern that looks like Super Mario? I found a pretty good screenshot of the original Donkey Kong playing screen, so that’s going to be my first project. Well, second project, but first real project. Ooooohhhh yeah.

In addition to picking up new mad skillz, we also stopped by a big remainder book sale in Manchester. Hardcovers $3, paperbacks $1.50. I spent $44.50 there. I’ll leave how many books I wound up with a puzzle for you to solve. I will say that my #1 find was Neil Gaiman’s children’s book The Wolves in the Walls. I’ve always wanted to pick up his children’s books, since I love everything he writes, but it’s always been hard for me to justify shelling out 12 or 15 bucks for a children’s book when we don’t have any childrens. Now I have it for $3. Sweet!

Also, my good friend Will Hines has done me the honor of giving me a list of comics I should be reading in my downtime so I can catch up with the comic world. I’m gonna be a busy little bee when I’m hospitalized. Now watch – I’ll probably be too weak to hold the books and my vision too blurry to see the needle. If all else fails, I suppose I can catch up on my sleep.